Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
2/18/10

PHOENIX - Arizona doesn't tax prescriptions. But marijuana is marijuana, even if your doctor does say it's OK.

And if voters agree to let doctors do that, pot users should have to pay the state for the privilege, said the Senate Finance Committee, which agreed on a 4-3 vote to subject medical marijuana to the state's 5.6 percent sales tax.

Medical-marijuana backers have until June to finish collecting the 154,000 signatures needed to force a vote on the initiative. The measure would let doctors give patients a "certification," circumventing threats by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to revoke the prescription-writing privileges of any doctor who prescribes marijuana.

Based on a similar law in California, the tax would bring in about $1.3 million.

Sen. Jorge Garcia, D-Tucson, who proposed SB 1222, said he supports the initiative to let those with "written certification" from a doctor get up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana every two weeks. He said more than a dozen other states already have similar laws.

"A number of folks that I've spoken to in my work say that marijuana helps them to relieve some stressors, to deal with the nausea associated with medications," Garcia said.

But the state should get its cut, he said.

Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the initiative, not only supports the tax, but he believes it might give voters another reason to vote for the measure.

"Passing this makes it clear that enacting a medical-marijuana law is not only the right thing to do for patients but it will also help pay for social services," he said.